How the Sixty-Six Books of the Bible Were Collected and Preserved

Willmington's Guide to the Bible

I. The Writing Materials of the Bible. The
Spirit of God moved upon the authors of the Bible to record their’
precious messages upon whatever object was in current use at the time of
the writing. Thus once again we see the marvelous condescension of God.
These writing materials would include:

A. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with the following
exceptions appearing in Aramaic: Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12-26; Jeremiah 10:11;
Daniel 2:4–7:28. Why did God choose Hebrew? In their book A
GeneralIntroductiontotheBible,
authors Geisler and Nix note the following:

"It is a pictorial language, speaking with vivid, bold metaphors
which challenge and dramatize the story. The Hebrew language possesses a
facility to present ‘pictures’ of the events narrated. ‘The Hebrew
thought in pictures, and consequently his nouns are concrete and vivid.
There is no such thing as neuter gender; for the Semite everything is
alive. Compound words are lacking.…There is no wealth of adjectives.…’
The language shows ‘vast powers of association and, therefore, of
imagination.’ Some of this is lost in the English translation, but even
so, ‘much of the vivid, concrete, and forthright character of our
English Old Testament is really a carrying over into English of
something of the genius of the Hebrew tongue.’ As a pictorial language,
Hebrew presents a vivid picture of the acts of God among a people who
became examples or illustrations for future generations (cf. 1 Cor.
10:11). The Old Testament was intended to be presented graphically in a
‘picture-language.’

Further, Hebrew is a personal language. It addresses itself to the
heart and emotions rather than merely to the mind or reason. Sometimes
even nations are given personalities (cf. Mal. 1:2, 3). Always the
appeal is to the person in the concrete realities of life and not to the
abstract or theoretical. Hebrew is a language through which the message
is felt rather than thought. As such, the language was highly qualified
to convey to the individual believer as well as to the worshiping
community the personal relation of the living God in the events of the
Jewish nation. It was much more qualified to record the realization of
revelation in the life of a nation than to propositionalize that
revelation for the propagation among all nations." (pp. 219, 220)

B. The entire New Testament was written in Greek. Again, to quote
from Geisler and Nix:

"Greek was an intellectual language. It was more a language of the
mind than of the heart, a fact to which the great Greek philosophers
gave abundant evidence. Greek was more suited to codifying a
communication or reflection on a revelation of God in order to put it
into simple communicable form. It was a language that could more easily
render the credible into the intelligible than could Hebrew. It was for
this reason that New Testament Greek was a most useful medium for
expressing the propositional truth of the New Testament, as Hebrew was
for expressing the biographical truth of the Old Testament. Since Greek
possessed a technical precision not found in Hebrew, the theological
truths which were more generally expressed in the Hebrew of the Old
Testament were more precisely formulated in the Greek of the New
Testament.

Furthermore, Greek was a nearly universal language. The truth of God
in the Old Testament, which was initially revealed to one nation
(Israel), was appropriately recorded in the language of the nation
(Hebrew). But the fuller revelation given by God in the New Testament
was not restricted in that way. In the words of Luke’s gospel, the
message of Christ was to ‘be preached in his name to all nations’ (Lk.
24:47). The language most appropriate for the propagation of this
message was naturally the one that was most widely spoken throughout the
world. Such was the common (Koine) Greek, a thoroughly international
language of the first century Mediterranean world.

It may be concluded, then, that God chose the very languages to
communicate His truth which had, in His providence, been prepared to
express most effectively the kind of truth He desired at that particular
time, in the unfolding of His overall plan. Hebrew, with its pictorial
and personal vividness, expressed well the biographical truth of the Old
Testament. Greek, with its intellectual and universal potentialities,
served well for the doctrinal and evangelistic demands of the New
Testament." (p. 221)

III. The Reason for the Writing of the Bible. Perhaps the one supreme
difference between man and all other creatures (apart from his immortal
soul, of course), is his God-given ability to express his thoughts on
paper. It has been observed that while it was no doubt desirable to speak
to the prophets "in divers manners" in time past, the best way to
communicate with all men of all ages is through the written
record. The advantages of the written method are many, of course.

A. Precision—one’s thoughts must be somewhat precise to be written.

B. Propagation—the most accurate way to communicate a message is
usually through writing.

C. Preservation—men die, and memories fail, but the written record
remains. It may be said that the New Testament especially was written
for the following reasons:

1. Because of the demands of the early church (1 Thess. 5:27; 1
Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17).

2. Because of false doctrines (to counteract them).

3. Because of missionary endeavors (to propagate them).

4. Because of persecution and politics.

IV. The Old Testament.

A. The order of the books in the Hebrew Old Testament. The
thirty-nine books in our English Old Testament appear somewhat
differently in a present-day Hebrew Bible. They cover the identical
material but number twenty-four and are arranged in a threefold
division:

1. The Law (Torah).

a. Genesis

b. Exodus

c. Leviticus

d. Numbers

e. Deuteronomy

2. The Prophets (Nebhiim).

a. Former Prophets—four books:

(1) Joshua

(2) Judges

(3) Samuel

(4) Kings

b. Latter Prophets (major and minor):

Major Section

(1) Isaiah

(2) Jeremiah

(3) Ezekiel

Minor Section

(1) Hosea

(2) Joel

(3) Amos

(4) Obadiah

(5) Jonah

(6) Micah

(7) Nahum

(8) Habakkuk

(9) Zephaniah

(10) Haggai

(11) Zechariah

(12) Malachi

3. The Writings.

a. The poetical books (3)

(1) Psalms

(2) Proverbs

(3) Job

b. The Scrolls (5)

(1) Song of Solomon

(2) Ruth

(3) Lamentations

(4) Ecclesiastes

(5) Esther

c. Prophetic—historical (3)

(1) Daniel

(2) Ezra—Nehemiah

(3) Chronicles

B. The suggested order of the writings. Many believe the book of Job
to be the oldest in the Word of God. It may well have been written as
early as 2000 b.c. One of the earliest written parts was that section
found in Exodus 17. This recording occurred on Israel’s route to
Palestine. Joshua had just won a tremendous victory over a fierce desert
tribe called the Amalekites. After the battle was over we read:

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book,
and release it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven" (Ex. 17:14).

Other early sections of the Word of God would of course include the
Law of Moses. (See Deut. 31:24-26.) The following is a mere suggestion
of the time of the writing of the Old Testament books:

1. Job—2150 b.c.

2. Pentateuch—1402 b.c.

3. Joshua—before 1350 b.c.

4. Judges and Ruth—before 1050 b.c.

5. Psalms—before 965 b.c.

6. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon—before 926 b.c.

7. 1 and 2 Samuel—before 926 b.c.

8. 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles—before 848 b.c.

9. Obadiah—848 b.c.

10. Joel—835 b.c.

11. Jonah—780 b.c.

12. Amos—765 b.c.

13. Hosea—755 b.c.

14. Isaiah—750 b.c.

15. Micah—740 b.c.

16. Jeremiah and Lamentations—640 b.c.

17. Nahum—630 b.c.

18. Habakkuk and Zephaniah—625 b.c.

19. Ezekiel—593 b.c.

20. 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles—before 539 b.c.

21. Daniel—before 538 b.c.

22. Haggai and Zechariah—520 b.c.

23. Esther—after 476 b.c.

24. Ezra—after 458 b.c.

25. Nehemiah—after 445 b.c.

26. Malachi—432 b.c.

C. The location of the Old Testament books.

1. Before the Babylonian captivity. Prior to this period (606 b.c.)
the Old Testament books were apparently laid beside the Ark of the
Covenant in the Temple. This is indicated in the following passages:

"And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and
all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and
said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. And Moses
wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and
builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the
twelve tribes of Israel.…And he took the book of the covenant, and
read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord
hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Ex. 24:3, 4, 7).

"And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the
words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses
commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark
of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a
witness against thee" (Deut. 31:24-26).

"And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have
found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave
the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to
the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have
gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it
into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the
house of the Lord. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying
Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it
before the king" (2 Ki. 22:8-10).

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a
statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in
the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up
there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord" (Josh.
24:25, 26).

"Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote
it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the
people away, every man to his house" (1 Sam. 10:25).

2. During the Babylonian captivity. The books were probably carried
to Babylon and later collected by Daniel. In 9:2 of his book, the
prophet Daniel writes:

"In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the
number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of
Jerusalem."

Here Daniel specifically states he was reading Jeremiah and "the
books," a reference no doubt to the other Old Testament books written
up to that time.

3. After the Babylonian captivity. These books may have been taken
back to Jerusalem by Ezra the prophet and kept in the newly completed
Temple. (See Ezra 3:10, 11; 6:15-18; Neh. 8:1-8.)

V. The New Testament. The New Testament was written over a period of
about fifty years (approximately a.d. 50-100), by eight separate human
authors.

A. A suggested chronological order and possible dating of the New
Testament books.

A. The tests given to the biblical books. Various books of the Bible,
especially those of the New Testament, were submitted to certain rigid
tests by the early church. These tests included:

1. Authorship—who wrote the book or the epistle?

2. Local church acceptance—had it been read by the various
churches? What was their opinion?

3. Church fathers’ recognition—had the pupils of the disciples
quoted from the book? As an example, a man named Polycarp was a
disciple of John the apostle. Therefore one test of a book might be,
"What did Polycarp think of it?"

4. Book subject matter (content)—what did the book teach? Did it
contradict other recognized books?

5. Personal edification—did the book have the ability to inspire,
convict, and edify local congregations and individual believers?

In closing this section it should be stated that it was a combination
of these five steps which helped determine whether a book was inspired
or not. Canonicity was not determined at all by either the age or
the language of a given book. For example, there were many ancient books
mentioned in the Old Testament (see Num. 21:14; Josh. 10:3) which were
not in the Old Testament canon. Also, some of the apocryphal books (such
as Tobit) were written in Hebrew but were not included in the Old
Testament, while some books (like portions of Daniel) written in Aramaic
were included in the canon.

B. The writings that were unacceptable. After the Old Testament canon
was recognized by the Jews as officially closed, and prior to the New
Testament period, there arose a body of literature called the Apocrypha.
This word literally means "that which is hidden" and consists of
fourteen books.

1. The contents of the Old Testament Apocrypha.

a. 1 Esdras covers much of the material found in Ezra,
Nehemiah, and 2 Chronicles. But it also includes a fanciful story
concerning three Jewish servants in Persia. They were all asked a
question by King Darius concerning what was the greatest thing in
the world. One said wine, another replied women, while the third
claimed it was truth. He won, and when offered a reward, suggested
the king allow the Jews to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

b. 2 Esdras contains certain visions given to Ezra dealing with
God’s government of the world and the restoration of certain lost
Scriptures.

c. Tobit is the story of a pious Jew (Tobit) who is
accidentally blinded (by sparrow dung) and is later healed by an
angel named Raphael, who applies a concoction of fish heart,
liver, and gall to his eye.

d. Judith is the story of a beautiful and devout Jewish
princess who saves Jerusalem from being destroyed by
Nebuchadnezzar’s invading armies. This she does by beguiling the
enemy general through her beauty, then returning to Jerusalem with
his head in her handbag!

e. The remainder of Esther. There are additional inserts to
this book to show the hand of God in the narrative by putting the
word "God" in the text. The word God does not appear in the Old
Testament book of Esther.

f. The Wisdom of Solomon has been called "The Gem of the
Apocrypha," and is one of the loftier books of the Apocrypha.

g. Ecclesiasticus, also called "the Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of
Sirach," resembles the book of Proverbs, and gives rules for
personal conduct in all details of civil, religious, and domestic
life.

i. 2 Maccabees covers in part the same period as 1 Maccabees
but is somewhat inferior content-wise.

j. Baruch was supposedly written by Jeremiah’s secretary,
Baruch. It contains prayers and confessions of the Jews in exile,
with promises of restoration.

k. The Song of the Three Children, inserted in the book of
Daniel, right after the fiery furnace episode (Dan. 3:23),
contains an eloquent prayer of Azariah, one of the three Hebrew
men thrown into the fire.

l. The story of Susanna is a story relating how the godly wife
of a wealthy Jew in Babylon, falsely accused of adultery, was
cleared by the wisdom of Daniel.

m. Bel and the Dragon is also added to the book of Daniel. The
book contains two stories:

(1) The first concerns how Daniel proves to the king that his
great god Bel is a dead idol, and that the Bel priests are
religious crooks.

(2) Unger’sHandbook describes the second story
in the following words:

"The other legend concerns a dragon worshiped in Babylon.
Daniel, summoned to do it homage, feeds it a mixture of pitch,
hair, and fat, which causes it to explode. The enraged populace
compels the King to throw Daniel in the den of lions where he is
fed on the sixth day by the prophet Habakkuk, who is angelically
transported to Babylon by the hair of his head while carrying
food and drink to the reapers in Judea. On the seventh day the
King rescues Daniel and throws his would-be destroyers to the
hungry lions." (p. 459)

n. The Prayer of Manasses is the supposed confessional prayer
of wicked King Manasseh of Judah, after he was carried away
prisoner to Babylon by the Assyrians.

2. Reasons for rejecting the Apocrypha. "Why don’t you Protestants
have all the books of the Bible in your King James Version?" Often
Christians and Bible lovers are confronted with this question by those
who have accepted the Apocrypha into their translations of the Bible.
Why indeed do we not include these fourteen books? There are many
sound scriptural reasons.

a. The Apocrypha was never included in the Old Testament canon
by such recognized authorities as the Pharisees, Ezra the prophet,
etc.

b. It was never quoted by the Jews, by Jesus, or by any other
New Testament writers.

c. The great Jewish historian Josephus excluded it.

d. The well-known Jewish philosopher Philo did not recognize
it.

e. The early church fathers excluded it.

f. The Bible translator Jerome did not accept the books as
inspired, although he was forced by the Pope to include them in
the Latin Vulgate Bible.

j. No Apocryphal book can be found in any catalogue list of
canonical books composed during the first four centuries a.d. In
fact, it was not until 1596 at the Council of Trent that the Roman
Catholic Church officially recognized these books, basically in an
attempt to strengthen their position, which had been grievously
weakened by the great reformer Martin Luther.

C. Some canonical books were at first doubted but later fully
accepted. During the first few years of early church history there were
some twelve biblical books which were temporarily objected to for
various reasons.

1. Old Testament books.

a. The Song of Solomon—because it seemed to some to be a mere
poem on human love.

b. Ecclesiastes—because some felt it taught atheism. (See 9:5.)

c. Esther—because it did not mention the word "God" in the
entire book.

c. 2 and 3 John—because they seemed to be simply two personal
letters.

d. Jude—because the author refers to an uncanonical Old
Testament book, the book of Enoch.

e. Revelation—because of the uncertainty about the book’s
authorship and because of its many mysterious symbols.

VII. The Finalization of the Canon.

A. The Old Testament. By the year 300 b.c. (at the latest) all Old
Testament books had been written, collected, revered, and recognized as
official, canonical books. Many believe Ezra the prophet led the first
recognition council.

B. The New Testament. During the Third Council of Carthage, held in
a.d. 397, the twenty-seven New Testament books were declared to be
canonical. However, it absolutely must be understood that the Bible is not an authorized collection of books, but rather a collection of
authorized books. In other words, the twenty-seven New Testament books
were not inspired because the Carthage Council proclaimed them to be,
but rather the Council proclaimed them to be such because they were
already inspired.